When is a quilt more than just a quilt? Today, the House of Culture opened an exhibit examining the deeper cultural relevance of Maya and Mennonite embroidery. The show takes a deeper look at Mayan and Mennonite quilts, analyzing inner symbolisms and patterns. So what do the designs of the European Mennonites and the indigenous Mayans have in common? We found out.
Froyla Salam, HOC
"I want people when they come here and they go and see a Mayan blouse that they will see something beyond that it is just pretty or they want a blouse like that. I want them to be able to look at it in greater detail and understand why that image in particular is being represented on a blouse. Likewise a Mennonite quilt, when they buy it, it is representing communal life for the Mennonites in the sense of comrade in religion."
And the way the exhibit intends on doing that is by deconstructing the works of Mayan embroidery and Mennonite quilts. Froyla Salam explains that while the imagery are beautiful in and of themselves, there is greater meaning behind every stitch.
Froyla Salam,
"We wanted to show people that there is a meaning behind the Mayan embroidery. Quite often they know it is a meaning but they don't know what it is so it is a response to that need for information. Our world is full of symbols that we sometimes see them and we don't know the meaning behind it and especially in religion, in mythology, symbolism abounds and the Mayas are not different. What we have noticed is that a lot of the designs that the Mayas use are of animals, they are of diamonds, of snakes, and it goes back to the mythology of what these creatures mean to the Mayas. The environment is very important and that's why you have birds like turkeys depicted, you have flowers, you have trees. With the snake, the snake is one of the most powerful Mayan symbols. It is the symbol of the Gods; there is actually a image of him dancing with the snakes.
In the case of the Mennonites, where the quilt is very important, look at where we are, we are in the tropics. We don't really need a sheet to sleep but yet you go to any Mennonite's house and you will find a quilt on the bed. Why? Because its part of the Mennonite culture in the sense that making a quilt is a communal effort and if you look at the Mennonite community, everything is about sharing. Why? Because it is a big part of their religion. So when you have a pretty quilt on your bed they don't say, 'oh we're part of a community,' its just like, 'we have a pretty quilt.' But when you start going and analyzing why then it all makes sense and it goes back to representing who these people are as a culture."
The exhibit runs for three months at the House of Culture.
